There are many situations in which an individual is temporarily or permanently unable to practice oral hygiene in a convenient manner. One particular problem is presented by critical care patients in hospitals, as well as those in hospitals and nursing homes who require respirators to breath. Not only can the patient typically not walk or otherwise move to a restroom, the patient is often unable to hold the tooth brush and other oral hygiene instruments which are commonly used to keep one's mouth clean.
Because of these problems, the oral hygiene of many patients must be conducted by nurses or nurse's aides. The oral hygiene for each such patient must be worked in to an already hectic routine so convenience and ease of use is important.
Oral hygiene typically involves use of oral swabs, oral care applications and/or suctioning devices. Oral care swabs are typically designed for single use. Exemplary oral care swabs and oral care suction swabs are available from many companies including Kimberly-Clark Global Sales, Inc. of Roswell, Ga. Such swabs are typically impregnated with an oral care solution before treatment of a patient. For example, swabs have been dipped in various containers of oral care solutions before being used for oral care. In other examples, a burst pouch is incorporated within a sealed bag containing one or more swabs so that the swabs can be impregnated, while still in their package, before use to eliminate the step of dipping the swab in the container of oral care solution. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,226 for a “Swab Impregnating and Dispensing System” issued to Hanifl et al.
While such a package for impregnating swabs with oral care solution had advantages, different swabs are typically used to apply a mouth moisturizer and separate container or kits have been supplied for that purpose.
One attempt to address this problem is found in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,866 for a “Dual Bag Mouth Care Package” issued to Booras et al., which teaches two sealed bags or pouches arranged in series to provide swab impregnating solution and a separate pouch of mouth moisturizing solution. That is, the two bags are arranged from end-to-end and are generally designed to be arranged in a horizontal position when opened. A first sealed bag contains a pair of oral care suction swabs and a burst pouch of swab impregnating solution. The first sealed bag is accessed through a first perforation line that is spaced from the side edges of the bag. A second sealed bag contains a sealed pouch that holds only a mouth moisturizing solution is applied to oral care suction swabs in the first bag. The contents of the second sealed bag are accessed through a second perforation line or through an end seal that is formed to allow the second bag to be opened at the end seal.
One disadvantage of such an arrangement is that all the swabs are in a single package (i.e., in the first sealed bag) which results in the entire contents (i.e., all the swabs) becoming impregnated with liquid when the burst pouch is fractured. Another disadvantage is the dispensing configuration of the package. A perforation line that is spaced from the side edges of the bag requires two hands to open or fracture the perforation line and two hands to manipulate the contents to and through the opening to dispense the contents. Moreover, the serial arrangement of the first bag and second bag results in each bag being opened sequentially in a separate action.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need for a pack of oral care items that provides simple and easy dispensing access to two or more individual items. In addition, there is an unmet need for a pack of oral care items that can be opened quickly, reliably and easily to access to items in separate packages. There is also a need for a pack of oral care items that allows for selective impregnation or saturation of some items but not others while providing simple and easy dispensing access to each item. Moreover, there is a need for a pack of oral care items that allows for selective impregnation or saturation of some items but not others while providing quick, simple and reliable access to items in separate packages.